Although this lesson was focused on the relationship of multiplication and division, I spent some time with this student talking about his addition strategies. I have found that it is imperative to check in with students on all they have learned all along the way. To keep them talking about each part of their thinking and not just the objective of the lesson is critical in my assessment of their deep understanding.

All too often we teachers move on to new learning and assume past learning is done and cemented. Not so. Listen to this student work to explain his addition strategy.

Always find time to review

Continuous Assessment: Always find time to review

Sharing Maybe?

Sharing Maybe?

Unit 4: Understanding Division
Lesson 9 of 13

Objective: Students will be able to solve a multi-step word problem using division, multiplication, and addition.

I have found that my students LOVE themed lessons. Ever since we began this unit with "The Doorbell Rang" by Pat Hutchins, we have talked about cookies in our math stories, as well as other objects. Now, with the launch of cc.betterlesson.com site and this classroom celebration of our hard work in division, I decide to bake some cookies and "share them…maybe"!

First, I share this video of the Cookie Monster from Sesame Street, to create some excitement in the room. (You'll get the lesson title!) You won't need to show the whole thing, but you may because the kids love it, and the ending is sweet.

I explain to the children that I have baked some cookies, and would share them…maybe, if they could work together to solve the following situation. I set up this situation to mirror our classroom, with a total of 18 students. If you choose to do this, you may want to change your numbers to fit your classroom so the students get equal shares!

I was pleased with how quickly the children were able to figure out what they needed to do in this multiple step problem. Those steps are:

Calculate the equal group size

Calculate each table's total share size

Add all tables together

When I put the story up at first, I just show the kids the word problem and wait. Within seconds, they are asking, "How many students? How many cookies? How many did they each get?" And of course one of my jokesters asked, "What kind?" This was music to my ears, as it proved the students were making sense of a problem in order to solve, which is Mathematical Practice 1!

Then, I show them the tables. One has a 12 in the center. I tell students that number represents the tray of cookies on that table and the small circles are the chairs.

At this point a student asks, "Why didn't you just do 3 tables of 6?" Good question! I let the children know that in my experiences, everyone at parties moves around, even when you put equal numbers of chairs out. So this model represents how the "guests" ended up arranging themselves.

Right away someone says he knows how many cookies each student got! I didn't ask how many, but I asked how he knew. He relates to the class that he divided 12 by the 6 chairs. They were off and at work quickly after that!

In this video, my student explains how she is able to find the number of cookies that needed to be at each table. She modeled her math well and was able to express her thinking.

This child is able to explain to me how he found the totals for each table and then began writing more into his journal to clarify his thinking for me. We continue to work on our journal responses to be as thorough as possible, which helps the children grow in their understanding and use of the Mathematical Practices.

Resources (1)

Resources

After sharing our strategies on the board with everyone, we have…COOKIES! This is a great way to wrap up our unit for now on division. I have a small list of mini lessons that I will use as full lesson ideas, or as mid-workshop lessons. However, after a formal assessment, I think we will be ready to move on to fractions.

Just loved the Cookie Monster video. Totally got the kids excited to delve into the work. Although, my students struggled with solving the problem. These are the types of problems I want to expose my student to more frequently and consistently. It really gets them thinking and making application of the skills learned in class. Excellent Lesson!

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Big Idea:
Just like multiplication, addition, and subtraction, division problems involve patterns and there are methodical ways in which manipulatives can be used to solve division problems with small dividends and divisors of 1 through 10.